Power consumption: How much are your gadgets costing you?

Earth Hour started out in Sydney just two years ago as a pie-in-the-sky idea, but its amazing momentum will this year see residents of 2848 cities in 84 countries switching off their lights in a show of solidarity for the cause of reducing energy consumption.

While it's only saving a trickle of electricity compared with the amount the world's cities guzzle every day of the year, the strong support for Earth Hour can only help raise awareness of the need to monitor and control electricity consumption.

The connected (and expensive) home
For those who have invested in high-tech gear for the home, the need to monitor energy consumption may well have become apparent upon receipt of the first electricity bill. Just how much consumption has increased is a subject of no small contention — estimates that gadgets on standby consume around 10 per cent of a household's power supply are often bandied about as a rule of thumb, but don't necessarily stand up to scrutiny.

Nonetheless, there is no doubt that today's connected homes are more power-hungry than ever. From plasma TVs that may be left running when nobody's watching them, to games consoles idling unplayed, media centre PCs, home media servers and external hard drives buzzing away 24/7, to computers left running when unused — there are more ways than ever for your local electricity retailer to be jumping with joy.

Even in standby mode, conventional wisdom has been that many devices suck down power; combine this with their always-on nature, and the bills rack up fast. Yet while many conservation advocates recommend turning off appliances at the switch, this doesn't work so well for computer equipment.

Hard drives and memory sticks, for example, should be disconnected by the operating system before being powered off to ensure data integrity. In homes with voice over IP services running, broadband routers must be left on all the time to ensure continuous service. And for those people streaming music or video libraries around their homes, the computer must be left on all the time. And, as many parents have found out, turning off video-game consoles without giving the kids time to save their progress will inevitably end in harsh recriminations.

All this adds up to two things: first, turning your stuff off for Earth Hour takes more than just a few casual flicks of the switch. And second, that it's helpful to know just how much power your connected home is consuming, so you can balance the inconvenience of switching off with the real value it delivers.

Read the full article here: Power consumption of gadgets